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Friday, 31 May 2013

Firing line... Space wolves vs Tau 1000

After about 2 months
of messing around, my friend finally got his Tau got delivered from Total
Wargamer, it’s a stupid site who can’t communicate with customers or deliver in
a reasonable time. With his models finally here we had a 1000 point game of The
Relic, with Hammer and Anvil deployment. Space wolves vs the New tau codex, let’s
see what the new boys can do...

The Armies

Space wolves 995

Wolf Lord – 225
(warlord: scoring unit) w/ Bikes

Bike, Frost blade,
Saga of warrior born, Belt of Russ, melta bomb

10 Grey hunters – 155

2 x melta gun

Rhino – 35

10 Grey Hunters – 150

2 x flamers

Rhino – 35

5 Wolf scouts – 105

Plasma gun, plasma
pistol

6 Swift claw bikers –
175

Power fist

5 Long fangs – 115

4 x missile launcher

The idea behind this
force was that the bikes would get into the Tau line quickly taking most of the
fire power. The lord should survive, and then wreck face when he hits the Tau
line. While this is happening the grey hunters should move up behind them aided
by the long fangs taking out whatever they can. The scouts are just a bit of
fun which might kill something with plasma.

A very small force,
but with a lot more fire power than mine. I just have to hope that I can get
close fast enough to start killing them.

The Mission

We rolled for mission
and got the Relic, deployment was hammer and Anvil, it’s been a while since we
last played hammer and anvil so it was a good change. The board was set up for
a little city fight battle, ruins everywhere and a few little barricades and
trees in a corner. We rolled for set up and the Tau win. He deploys both fire
warriors out in the open facing the relic. The riptide to the left of the fire
warriors, giving them supporting fire. One unit of pathfinders go into the ruin
at the back of his deployment and the other on the left of his riptide. The
drones and battle suit go far right hidden from view. The flyer is in reserve.

Space wolf deployment

I counter with my
long fangs in a ruin overlooking the battle field with the rhinos each side of
the ruin. The bikes hide behind the ruin and rhino on the left trying to stay
out of sight. The wolf scouts go into reserve.

Deployment

Night fight: No

Steal the initiative:
No

The Battle

Tau turn 1

The fire warriors
move forwards a little to gain maximum shots at my army while the drones and battle
suit jump out of cover. The rest of the army stays still.

Shining lights at my
army, the pathfinder shoot marker lights at the melta rhino and get a single
hit. The drones shine marker lights at the long fangs and get a single hit as
well. The Riptide uses its target lock to shoot at a separate target to its
drones, and shoots at the long fangs and uses a marker light for +1BS, and
kills 2 missile launcher wielding marines. The drones shoot at the melta rhino
and penetrate it, exploding it, killing 2 hunters in the explosion. Lights
again are shone at the remaining rhino from the pathfinders, hitting it twice.
The battle suit shoots at the rhino using 2 marker lights for +2 BS, it hits
and gets a glance and a penetrating hit, immobilising the rhino. The first fire
warrior squad shoot at the long fangs killing the remaining heavy weapon
wielding marines, leaving only the sergeant alive. The other fire warriors
shoot at the hunters in the wreckage of the rhino and somehow kill 6! Due to a
very good roll to hit and terrible armour save rolls. Everyone who took
casualties hold their ground.

Space wolves turn 1

The flamer hunters
get out of their transport and move forwards while the other 2 hunters get out
of the wreckage. Going full out, the bikes go straight for the Tau. The lone
long fang moves down to the base of the ruin.

Going flat out for
the extra cover save, the bikes move towards the Tau. The two hunters shoot at
the fire warriors and shot down a single Xenos. The other hunters run a whole 2
inches forwards. Rhino doesn’t fix itself.

Tau turn 2

Streaking in from
reserve, the razor shark comes in from the table edge. The battle suit moves to
hide but still see the bikes, followed by the marker drones. Falling back the
Riptide aims at the bikes (Novercharging its gun) but the fire warriors hold ground.

Shooting starts with
the drones marking the bikes. The pathfinders use the drone’s marker light to
get +1 BS, getting 3 hits. Following their brother lead, the other pathfinders
shoot rail rifles at the bikes but they all jink out the way. Not allowing the
bikers to live, the Riptide shoots at the bikes using 3 marker lights to ignore
cover and get +1 BS. The novercharged ion weapon locks on with its large blast,
and kills 3 bikes and puts a single wound on the wolf lord. The missiles from
the two drones kill 1 more biker. The razor shark shoots at the bikes killing
off the remaining bikes leaving the lord alone. Seeing an opportunity, missiles
rain form the battle suit into the wolf lord taking 1 more wound from him, and
then he dies to a rapid firing unit of fire warriors. The last unit of fire
warriors shoot at the larger grey hunter squad and kill 4 more. I just can’t
roll saves this game.

Space wolves turn 2

Rolling for reserves
the wolf scouts come in, and I roll a 2 for outflank and so they arrive on the
right tale edge, behind the battle suit. The few remaining grey hunters move
forwards, defiant to the end!

Shooting from the
plasma guns of the scouts kills the lone battle suit, while the combined bolt
weapons of the marines kill 2 fire warriors. They marines then prepare
themselves for the oncoming volley.

Tau turn 3

Continuing forwards
the flyer goes hunting while the riptide novercharges its gun. The fire
warriors hold their ground and the drones move away from the wolf scouts.

Starting with the
path finder’s the hunters are marked 3 times. The scouts get a single marker light
on them. The riptide uses a single marker light for +1 BS and hits the grey
hunters, killing 5, wiping the squad out. The first squad of fire warriors
target the scouts and kill 4 of them leaving the plasma gun alive, but the
other fire warriors then overkill the final scout. The flyer wrecks the
remaining rhino.

I concede at this
point as I have 1 long fang left. I am practically tabled.

Post-Battle

Well that went well,
pathfinders can be quite devastating if you don’t take them out, and the
riptide could be powerful used correctly. I was really surprised at how powerful
such a simple list could be, devastating to me. Granted taking a small elite
army focusing on bikes to do damage wasn’t smart but who knew. So did I learn
much?

·Kill
the path finders: Constant bombardment of marker lights was horrible, and when I
use eldar again this could be a great disadvantage. The ability to use 2 marker
lights to ignore cover... that’s just sickening.

·Fire
warriors: the sheer fire power coming from these units when a fire blade is
added Is sickening, they did a number to T4 marines, so T3 eldar will be devastated.
Well let’s see In the future.

Well that's it for
today, Eldar codex tomorrow, somewhat exited about that.

1 comment:

Seems like the problem wasn't your army or tactics but rather your dice. Consistently you rolled poor saves and lost first turn. Taken in isolation those two things aren't game losers but together they end you. By the end of turn 1, you had lost most of your maneuverability and all of your long range firepower. Sad day.